Black Orchid illustrated by Dave McKean.
Black Orchid is the name of three fictional superheroines published by DC Comics. The original version of the character first appeared in Adventure Comics #428 (July 1973).[1]
Susan Linden-Thorne[]
Black Orchid's debut: Adventure Comics #428 (Aug. 1973). Cover art by Bob Oksner.
Although she has a number of superpowers (including flight, super-strength, and invulnerability to bullets) her main ability is a mastery of disguise. She often spends an entire investigation impersonating an insignificant background female, such as a maid, a secretary, someone's girlfriend, et cetera, and the other characters only discover her involvement at the end of the story upon finding the bound and gagged woman she impersonated, and an abandoned disguise with her calling card, a black orchid. According to the text pages, the creators imagined her in a world without other superheroes, and she combined the superhuman abilities of Superman with the detective work of Batman.
After appearing in Adventure Comics #'s 428–430, the character next appeared as a backup feature in The Phantom Stranger #'s 31, 32, 35, 36, and 38–41 (1974–1976), after which the character appeared only sporadically, such as an occasional cameo in comic books as diverse as three panels in the Crisis on Infinite Earths 12-issue limited series and Blue Devil Annual #1 (both 1985), as well as Deadshot vol. 1 #1 and Invasion! #2. She also appeared in Suicide Squad as a member of the team in issues #4, 7, 11, 12, 19, and 22 (1987–1988). She also had an appearance in the non-continuity Super Friends #31.
Adventure Comics #428 proclaimed on its cover that it was an "origin issue," although almost no background on the character is given, not even her name. Until Neil Gaiman explained her origin, the character was, in fact, most famous for her lack of an origin. Instead, writers teased us with several possible origins, all refuted. In The Phantom Stranger #38, writer Michael Fleisher posited racecar driver Ronnie Kuhn was posited as a possible secret identity for Black Orchid. In the next issue, Kuhn was revealed to be simply an admirer of Black Orchid, who is soon seduced into "The Black Orchid Legion" (molecular chemist Karen Jensen, astrophysicist Stefanie Tower, Olympic gymnast and acrobat Barbie Henderson, criminologist Janet Grant, and psychologist and martial artist Lisa Patrick), a group of criminals who developed suits that would mimic Black Orchid's powers, because of her father's status as president of the World Bank, claiming that they are helping her to protect it from Communists. They bind her to the safe door, which they have set with explosives. The real Black Orchid rescues her, and when the cops arrest the Legion, one mistakes Kuhn for the real Black Orchid, claiming to "know how it is with you super-heroes."[2] Although Super Friends was never considered canon, writer E. Nelson Bridwell made it fit, anyway. His story had Lisa Patrick purchase a large chunk of kryptonite on the black market, convinced that Black Orchid is a Kryptonian. Patrick tries to lure her to the meteorite display at the Gotham City Museum of Natural History, attracting the Justice League. Black Orchid places a force field around the kryptonite to protect Superman, but the force field harms her, instead, further convincing Patrick that she is Kryptonian, not noting the lack of effect on Superman. The latter takes the kryptonite into space, and Black Orchid follows him to take it as a brief hand-off so that the fragments will not kill him. When she survives the explosion, Superman inquires where she is from and how she got her powers; her answer--Earth.[3]
In Blue Devil Annual #1, the usually reliable Madame Xanadu and Phantom Stranger provide competing origins for Black Orchid. Xanadu identifies her as Madeleine Moorcock, and her origin is a parody of Daredevil, while the Stranger identifes her as Paula Porter, whose origin parodies Spider-Man.
In 1988, the character was relaunched in a three-part prestige format mini-series called Black Orchid which was written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean. The miniseries fleshed out the character considerably, providing an origin story which explained how and why she became known as Black Orchid. It also gave the character a civilian name in her origin sequence, Susan Linden-Thorne. Instead of being a normal super-powered human (or meta in the DC Universe), her background was changed to be that of a human-plant hybrid with ties to the Green. In this way she became related with other such human-plant hybrids as the Swamp Thing, Floronic Man, and Poison Ivy.[1] The innovative take on superhero storytelling and the fine-art quality of the illustrations paved the way for the creation of DC's Vertigo Comics imprint.[4]
Flora Black[]
The original Black Orchid is killed in this miniseries, and a new one which is a "sister" of sorts to the original is introduced. She goes under the alias of Flora Black to meet with Sherilyn Sommers, her closest friend.[4]
An on-going Black Orchid series, published under the newly created Vertigo imprint, featuring the new Black Orchid, ran for 22 issues from 1993 to 1995. Written by Dick Foreman, it saw the second version of the character use pheromone manipulation as mind control to become a femme fatale, breaking and marrying millionaire Elliot Weems to claim his fortune and company business as her own. She then became the series' major villain in the closing story arc, before perishing in the final issue. Her companion, a child version of Black Orchid heretofore nicknamed "Suzy", had matured over the course of the series, taking up the mantle of the Black Orchid as a young adult. Suzy features prominently in The Black Orchid Annual #1, part 2 of Vertigo's Children's Crusade crossover. The Annual was published between issues #4 and #5 of the on-going series.[5]
Suzy[]
The grown-up Suzy is identical to her "sister" and carries on the tradition in both the DC Universe and related Vertigo titles.[1] She has appeared in four event titles: 1999's Totems one-shot, 2001's Justice Leagues miniseries, 2005's Day of Vengeance miniseries, and 2006's Infinite Crisis miniseries. She is at present an ally of the Shadowpact and the Birds of Prey.
An unidentified Black Orchid recently appeared in the weekly Trinity series, as a member of an alternate universe Justice League.
Powers and abilities[]
The first Black Orchid had super strength, a degree of invulnerability, flight, and was a master of disguise. The second and third Black Orchids had super strength, flight, and can absorb nutrients from the air. The second version could generate seductive pheromones.
Awards[]
The 1988 limited series was nominated for the Squiddy Award for Favorite Limited Series in 1989, and for the Squiddy Award for Favorite Limited Series of the 1980s. The 1993 ongoing series was nominated for the Squiddy Award for Favorite New Continuing Series in 1993, the Squiddy Award for Most Improved Series in 1993 and 1994. Issue #8 of the series was nominated for the Squiddy Award for Favorite Single Issue Story in a Series in 1993. The trade paperback collection of the mini-series was nominated for the Squiddy Award for Favorite Reprint Volume in 1991.
References[]
External links[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jimenez, Phil (2008), "Black Orchid", in Dougall, Alastair, The DC Comics Encyclopedia, London: Dorling Kindersley, pp. 52, ISBN 0-7566-4119-5
- ↑ The Phantom Stranger (vol. 2) #40-41
- ↑ Super Friends #31
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Irvine, Alex (2008), "Black Orchid", in Dougall, Alastair, The Vertigo Encyclopedia, New York: Dorling Kindersley, pp. 32-34, ISBN 0-7566-4122-5, OCLC 213309015
- ↑ The Continuity Pages: Swamp Thing, Hellblazer and Black Orchid Accessed January 11, 2008